Many software applications that are designed for image editing display a region of control (sliders, buttons, text entry fields, levers, pop up menus, radio buttons etc.) in one area of the screen resp. in one window, while they, obviously, also display the image being edited in a different area of the screen resp. in a different window.
In the recent years, computers have become so powerful that the image being displayed can be updated in real-time while the user is modifying image editing parameters. For instance, if a user wanted to change the brightness of an image some years ago, he would for instance modify a slider and possibly even press a so-called “OK button”, and only then the brightened image would be displayed to the user.
In recent years faster computers make it possible that the computer recalculates the image frequently, possibly even several times a second, so that the user can now see the brightened or darkened image while he is moving the slider.
However, since current image editing applications are designed in a way that the image enhancement controls (from now on simply referenced as “controls”) are displayed spatially remote from the image, the user has to change the focus of his eye frequently from control to image and back.
The system proposed herein enables the user to edit the controls exactly at the same position of the image—possibly even exactly at the location of interest within the image.
The most natural way to do this is to create a (preferably small) window that holds the controls, where this window could be displayed as a “floating” window over the image, at any position where the user likes it. In reality, this does not really work since the window is typically very distracting, so most users would tend to move this dialog window away from the area of interest in the image.
The invention disclosed herein remedies these disadvantages.